In many situations, pet owners find a need to allow their pets to sleep in open environments where no heating or air conditioning facilities are available. For example, some pets are allowed to run in a yard and have free access to an attached or separate garage for shelter from the elements. However, such garage spaces do not have heating or air conditioning facilities normally and, therefore, there exists a need to provide the pet with a place to relax and sleep which is comfortable.
To accomplish the purposes of heating and/or cooling, many attempts in the prior art have resulted in bulky structures that do not work well on a long-term basis. Some of these designs require frequent maintenance. One example of bulky designs which provide heat through a water layer is U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,694. There, a heater of the type used in waterbeds is installed with a thermostat below an enclosure filled with water. The base of the bed that the pet lays on is above the water chamber. The thermostat is set for a certain temperature in the water layer. A cooling concept is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,835 where reusable prefrozen artificial ice packs are installed just below the platform on which the pet sits. The platform has perforations. The operability of such a device is of limited duration unless the pet owner repeatedly replaces the prefrozen chemical ice packs. In a similar vein is U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,693. Here, there is a container which accepts ice cubes. Again, the design requires constant maintenance in order to continue to deliver adequate cooling capacity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,214 illustrates another example, using an electric heater of a coiled shape in a water compartment which surrounds the platform on which the pet would sit or sleep. This design is fairly complex and employs a significant amount of water, making it likely to be fairly slow in sensitivity to changing ambient temperatures. Additionally, the water needs to be changed regularly to avoid growth of algae and the like. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,872 is an entire enclosure for an animal with the heating system built into the structure. The assembly is large and heavy, apart from being visually unattractive.
What is desired and lacking in the prior art is a pet bed design which is lightweight and, therefore, portable. In addition to being lightweight, the design should deliver heating and/or cooling in an efficient manner for the pet. Another objective of the present invention is to also provide a barrier around the periphery of the bed to further help in retention of the thermal effect from the system which provides heating and cooling. Elevating the platform also provides some insulating effect from the air layer below.
In accomplishing these objectives, the pet bed of the present invention can employ a thermoelectric device which can be suitably selectively wired for creation of a heating or cooling effect on the platform of the pet bed. The mechanism for providing the heating and cooling in the pet bed of the present invention can employ the thermoelectric principles known in the prior art and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,109, as well as in literature of known manufacturers of thermoelectric devices such as Tellurex, Marlow and Melchor.
Alternative methods of heating and/or cooling can be used in the present invention through eutectic materials alone or in combination with powered devices. Those and other advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood by those skilled in the art from a review of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment below.